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Oscar hands out tech awards

At the first Academy Award presentations of the year, 20 computer geeks graciously accepted honours for their work on particle flow simulation technology – stuff that makes water scenes in the movies look more realistic.

With an end to the writers' strike in sight, and the prospect of a reassuringly stylish Oscars ceremony on the minds of most everyone in the industry, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences kept its Scientific and Technical Awards dinner Saturday night as charmingly unglamorous as ever.

A magician provided the pre-meal entertainment, Jessica Alba showed up to present the awards – and be gawked at – and nerddom was held up as something to celebrate.

"Fluid effects rock and all of us who work in fluids know this," one honouree, Nafees Bin Zafar, said earnestly.

With all the writing for the show done by an academy administrator who isn't part of the Writers Guild, picket lines were nowhere to be seen. Alba was visibly pregnant in a frilly gray dress as she nimbly picked her way through a script laden with difficult technical references like "semi-Lagrangian" (it's a mathematical process used in special-effects software that simulates gas clouds).

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The star of The Eye was the subject of several awkward sidelong glances from winners, all but one of whom were male.

"They said I got 60 seconds so I might just spend the last 15 realizing I'm 10 feet away from the most beautiful woman on the planet," said Ron Fedkiw, a Stanford University associate professor and consultant to Industrial Light and Magic on fluid simulation. "And no restraining order this time."

Other winners were more demure. Honoured for the invention of pint-sized fog machines, Jorg Pohler remained silent as if playing Penn to Rudiger Kleinke's Teller. While Kleinke read an acceptance speech, Pohler smiled sublimely as puffs of smoke wafted up from inside his tuxedo.

For more as the Star counts down to the Academy Awards on Feb. 24, see thestar.com/oscars

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